>> the time is now for conservatives to pull together. the best chance to win this election is to nominate a conservative to go up against barack obama who can take him on, on every issue. >> we want to make sure that everybody knows we're campaigning everywhere there are delegates because we're going to win this nomination before that convention. >> romney's only prizes last night, hawaii and america samoa. the big question, does his delegate map hold up and can mitt romney ever appeal to core conservatives across the country? we bring in our power political panel this morning. jackie kucinich, democratic strategist, kentucky mcclean and analyst, michael steele. it's great to have you here. jackie, i want to start with you. santorum won in the osu. white evangelical voters, christian voters flocking to i am instead of newt gingrich. as we show everybody this, santorum winning women voters. even working republican women. are you surprised by that and

how should santorum and their campaign use this as fuel to move forward? >> you know, santorum has been saying that they don't have a women problem. when you look at some of the data from the other state, it isn't like there's a huge dropoff. when i say data, i mean the polls isn't a huge dropoff for santorum. he won them in a couple other state. it doesn't so much surprise me just because he has -- with conservative women he does pretty well. how he can use this going forward, point to that number. >> right. >> it gives him fodder to eliminate the assertion that he's too extreme and scares away voters. >> michael, the grits. >> two-man race, though? do you see this going to a brokered convention? is that the only inevitable about romney? >> i think there's a lot of misunderstanding about the brokered convention. it's where a third party or third candidate comes in because no one is able to get the

nomination. you've got three individuals at least who -- in striking distance of the nomination. contested convention is more like what this is going to look like. particularly given the fact that even if you give romney the remaining states, the rest of them are proportional. he has to pull 50 to 60% of the vote in each of the states. that's not going to happen. you're looking at a possibility of all three of these gentlemen getting into the frontline on -- in tampa and having to negotiate one of them getting the nomination. >> ki ki, is the real problem for mitt romney the republican elite, his donors? he has raised 6 o million so far. he's got the organization. everybody touted that. especially in alabama and mississippi. but he still can't put it away. he has the elites but not the core of base. >> it's interesting that the definition of a win is evolving. it's a win that you actually get the delegates and the nomination. or a win that you can't put the other guy a wa way? >> right now, he can't put santorum away.

one of the interesting things that this raises is that money is not enough. that the candidate has to be appealing to the voting constituents. right now, in that really extremely conservative republican primary, mitt romney is not appealing. what's interesting to me is, as this process goes on further and further, it's not the bloodying back and forth of one another, but the sheer fact that every day we're sitting here talking about tactical rules, technical structure of campaigns. we're not talking anything about what these candidates are saying. so it's giving them no substantive platform. which at the end of the day, really does triumph money and organization. >> newt gingrich placed second with romney third place. listen to newt explaining why he's not dropping out any time yet. >> we're going to leave alabama and mississippi with a substantial number of delegates increasing our total going towards tampa. i emphasize going to tampa because one of the things tonight proved is that the elite

media's effort to convince the nation that mitt romney is inevitable just collapsed. >> i don't think anybody is trying to convince anybody that it's inaeft believe when you look at the numbers mitt romney is collecting around the country. the voters are using their own voice. is it newt gingrich's game to deprive mitt romney of a clean entry into the convention? is that the only thing he gets out of it? >> i don't think that's the only thing he gets out of it. but it's a primary objective at this point. particularly looking at the fact he's only won two states and how does he get wins in some of the down states still coming. that's a problem. right now, it's because of going to my early ear point, because it's proportional because of the eight states that aren't. he's going to pick up some votes. last night he got 30%. you're looking at a third of the delegates going his way. that's part of the longer strategy as well. >> i want to bring in gingrich campaign chair and former pennsylvania congressman bob

walker. it's nice to have you with us. newt gingrich has set the stage. he said he needed to win in alabama or mississippi. he didn't. i want to read you a quote. an interesting quote from red states erick erickson this morning. gingrich's final act could be king maker by getting out and endorsing. pride cometh before the fall. gingrich is in mid fall. what a sad end to a brilliant legacy. but his campaign is over. all we immediate is hailey joel osment and m night sham lynn to point out he's dead. is your candidate the walking dead? >> that's a ridiculous statement. the fact is what last night proved is that mitt romney is not ininevitable. that was the core of his campaign. since the voters figured out that he's also not conservative, i think that the race goes forward in the second half of the season picking out who is the best conservative. in that competition, because gingrich has been a leader of national security conservatives, economic conservatives and

social conservatives, i think that he begins to emerge very, very strongly in this second half the came campaign season. as you saying romney not being inevitable, this is what gingrich had to say discussing his own way forward. >> alabama is right next door. you didn't win there. you didn't win in mississippi. what state coming up do you think you can win? >> i don't know yet. i don't know yet, brett. we're looking at a number of them. >> so the answer there being i don't know. that's far from a resounding comeback kid type of strategy or language that we've seen earlier in the primaries. what can he do to win a state like louisiana, sir? >> he can begin to move some of the romney voters that vn voting for him because he was inevitable and were accepting him even though he wasn't a conservative. you begin to move some of the conservatives to newt's totals. you begin to see a pathway forward. we are also looking out at states like texas and california where we think will do well.

that's been our campaign plan from the beginning. we think that, as long as we continue to pile up delegates, we'll get to the end of had campaign and it will demonstrate that newt gingrich is the conservative with the best chance of debating and beating barack obama. right now, we have obama in a real fight with us. the fight over energy has been a bi-play between newt gingrich and barack obama. that's the fight the american people want and they see newt as the fighter carrying the message. >> success breeding success and all things being what they are, sheldon adelson has been bankrolling the gingrich campaign, but one source quoted him as he may have written his last check. do you know if adelson is still behind newt gingrich? >> i have no idea. we do not maintain contact with that super pac. we're not supposed to. we don't. and so i have no idea on that. >> all right.

thank you so much. bob walker, gingrich campaign chair. we'll bring back our panel now. they're all still with me. michael, your take on what we heard from bob and moving forward. >> they have a way forward and that way forward is the fact that the rules allowing for greater play among the candidates. there's been a lot of whining and moaning and groaning about this process. dwes what? you can hate the game sometimes, but in this case you can't. this is really about the players. the game is set out for these folks to move forward and they have a strategy forward and they're going to be in it to tampa. >> jackie, let's look at moving forward. how this does proceed the next states up for grabs. missouri, where santorum won the nondelegate primary earlier. puerto rico where he's campaigning today. illinois, very important. can rick santorum blunt his -- >> it's going to be tough. in other states, romney was already behind in like ohio, michigan. he was behind in the polls and came from behind and barely beat

santorum. the poll this morning, romney is ahead slightly. but he's ahead in illinois. he's already advertising there. rick santorum, i don't believe is at this point. so it's going to be really tough and it's a really important victory for romney in particular. actually for both candidates. everything is must-win at this point. but illinois will be an important one. >> ki ki, this has to be frustrating for the romney campaign. is this prolonged fight knock down dragout to tampa? >> of course it's a nightmare. he can't find his own level of discipline running against a guy who went to america's heartland, participated in great american pastime has been campaigning about jobs and economic opportunity and growth in a way important for america. i want to say one thing. michael is right, this is a path forward for him. the question is forward to what? this is the ultimate on insider's baseball. that's what a speaker of the house does.

you have to remember, newt gingrich never got elected by a lot of voters. he got elected in one congressional district and one caucus. this is what he loves best. >> all right. we shall continue to watch this. jackie kucinich, michael steele, kiki -- president obama meeting with his british counterpart about the war in afghanistan. how this weekend's deadly rampage could impact drawdown plans. plus, defense secretary leon panetta makes a surprise trip to the war torn region. why soldiers were ordered to drop their guns. bazinet, president of creative digital imaging of bangor, maine. we have customers all over the united states. we rely on the postal service for everything that we do. the eastern maine processing facility is vital to our operation and our success. if we lose this processing facility we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. we would have to consider layoffs as a result of that. closure of this plant will affect all of us. ♪

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not by using guilt, not by appealing to the humanitarian interests but for good solid economic reasons for both of us. let send a high level envoy to china to work together on this.

let use the techniques we've learned from chasing terrorists and find and freeze the off shore bank accounts of these war criminals. they're not buying these weapons with sudanese pounds. let's work with the international community to toughen the sanctions, make it a lonely place. there's a lobbyist here in d.c. who is allegedly paid $20,000 a month to lobby for khartoum. let make sure he's aid in sudanese pounds. taking place in washington where actor george clooney is testifying on capitol hill about the horrors of the crisis in sudan before the senate foreign relations committee. he has been a vocal activist on this issue for years, going to that country for visits many times. clooney is scheduled to meet with the president and secretary of state hillary clinton coming tomorrow. right now defense secretary leon panetta is in afghanistan where he's meeting with our troops. commanders and afghan government officials as well. this visit days after a oen

rogue soldier allegedly gunned down civilians, including women and children. panetta says the shooting spree and the koran burnings that sparked nationwide violence will not interfere with plans to pull out of afghanistan by the end of 2014. nbc news learned that the troops were asked to disarm. before meeting with the defense secretary. more on that report a little later from afghanistan. however, this all comes as one of the united states greatest allies in afghanistan is visiting david cameron, prime minister at the white house. the two leaders to hold a joint news conference less than one hour from now after expanded bilateral talks where the afghanistan war is said to be tops on the agenda. the ceremony, the british prime minister nearly upstaged the president. >> i am a little embarrassed as i stand here to think that 200 years ago my ancestors tried to burn this place down.

[ laughter ] now, looking around me, i can see you've got the place a little better defended today. [ laughter ] you're clearly not taking any risks with the brits this time. >> nbc's kristen welker is live from the white house for us this morning. certainly joking there. we can all understand the relationship that they do have is a nice one. but it is serious business that needs to be discussed and what is expected from these two coming up from this news conference, obviously afghanistan is going to dominate the conversation. now, it's roughly 45 minutes away, correct? >> absolutely. a lot of serious business on the agenda this morning to discuss, tom, this afghanistan, the top of the list. as you know, there have been mounting calls from within the u.s. and the uk to speed up the timeline of withdrawal from afghanistan. those cries have only gotten louder in the wake of this tragic shooting this week that occurred in afghanistan and of course, the koran burnings which sparked the violent protests that we witnessed just a few

weeks ago. so expect that to be at the top of the agenda. president obama, the white house has been adamant this week that those incidents will not speed up the timeline for withdrawal. right now the allied forces expected to hand over control to the afghan forces in 2014. but there certainly is a lot of pressure mounting to do that. that will be at the top of the agenda. also iran, both leaders saying they will tighten and stiffen sanctions on iran and then, of course, syria. president obama made a reference to what's happening in syria today. take a listen. >> we believe in the universal rights of all people. so we stand united in our support for those who seek to choose their leaders and forage their future, including the brave citizens of the middle east and north africa who deserve the same god-given rights and freedoms as people everywhere. >> one of the other themes of this visit, thomas, is to really reaffirm that so-called special

relationship that exists between the united states and the uk. we saw that play out yesterday when president obama took prime minister cameron to the ncaa game that was occurring in ohio. they shared some laughs. at&t some hot dogs together. certainly had some fun. but it was also a moment of serious symbolism. the president trying to reaffirm and strengthen that relationship as they deal with these incredibly challenging and volatile issues in afghanistan, iran and syria. thomas? >> kristen welker at the white house for us. kristen, thank you. joining me is senator from new hampshire, jean shah heen, a member of the senate armed services. it's nice to have you here this morning. >> good morning. >> i want to get to afghanistan. shortly after the koran burnings in afghanistan, the protests that followed, you reported as saying the developments do not change the fact that the united states still has serious national security interests in afghanistan and pakistan.

do you feel the same way, senator, after the recent shooting spree that left 16 afghan civilians dead? if so, how do you suggest moving forward knowing full well the protests and violence that could ensue? >> first, let me begin by saying what a tragedy these killings were for the afghan families who were affected for the afghan people. they certainly don't reflect the good work that's been done by so many of our men and women in the military. this appears to be one disturbed individual. and the fact is, we have a schedule for turning over full security to the afghans. it's 2014. that's what the international troops who are there are working towards. we have already begun that effort. we have begun to draw down a number of our troops. the fact is we still do have

strategic interests in the region. this is a very volatile region. this is where the attacks on 9/11 began and this is where we still have too many terrorist groups operating. >> senator, what will constitute a victory to you and to your colleagues on the hill? a victory in afghanistan. >> i don't think we should look at this conflict in terms of traditional victory or defeat. the fact is, our goal is to turn over security to the afghans to do it in a way that's responsible to draw down our troops in a way that's responsible. and we have a goal to do that by 2014. obviously we are going to be looking at various details in assessing those when the nato representatives meet in chicago in may at their summit. >> senator jeanne shah heen, thanks for joining me. i want to pass along, we'll have much more on this later in the

hour and my colleague alex wagner will cover the joint news conference with prime minister david cameron live at 12:05 p.m. eastern on now. ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪

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♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for excellent fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion, also refreshing plus tea. could've had a v8. some kids told him he's worthless to hang himselfment i think he got to the point where enough was enough. >> a tragic situation. >> a perkins boy believed to have been desperate enough to take his own life. >> here what we get is nothing is wrong, we didn't do anything. everything is fine. >> punch me, strangle me. take things from me. sit on me. >> give it to him. >> he's not safe on that bus. >> i've been on that bus. they are just as good as gold. >> such a powerful clip from the r-rated film bully. unfortunately, that rating will keep kids from seeing it. now, activists, lawmakers and

celebrity, meryl streep, johnny depp, they want the motion picture association of america to make this film pg-13. but will that happen before the film opens nationally on march 30th? bully filmmaker lee hirsch is here in studio with me. great to have you here. congratulations on the process and the product that you've put out there. obviously the plim is gfilm it lot of attention because of the rating it was getting. just seeing that clip, the boy featured, one of the children featured, the abuse that he suffers is infuriating. you krur self-admit you were bullied as a kid. as a filmmaker, did you ever want to jump in there and save this kid from the crap he was getting from these other kids? >> first of all, thanks for having me. yeah. absolutely. i mean, i think the whole film was a giant act of wanting to jump in there. the whole film is an act of intervention on behalf of kids that get bullied every day

across our country that suffer in silence. really, you know, we did intervene with the school, with the parents, the whole chain of events. there's lots and lots and lots of kids dealing with this. i think this film gives them a voice. >> the scenes are not really fueling the r-rating. the language in the film is fueling the r-rating. according to the mpaa, they felt it was strong enough language to give it an r-rating. many other movies with more profanity are labeled with pg-13. how have they explained to you why this was given an r? >> they don't give you explanation. it's incredibly secretive. they will just say, sorry. this is a decision. it was for language. we can't tell you any more about the process. it's a very, very secretive process. you're right, the sort of morality judgment is so odd.

they'll say all this violence, gratuitous violence, glorification of violence is fine and then they look at our film and give it an r. it's heartbreaking and sort of infuriating and it's really, i think, what's helped rally so much support to this film, which has just been awesome. >> there's a young girl name katie butler started an online petition to get the rating changed. i interviewed her and i asked what she thought about cleaning up the film. this is what she said. >> taking out the language in the movie is taking away from the message. the message is so strong. the language in this movie is a language that kids hear every day. the language that kid are bullied with. if we go in and take it out, it's definitely taking away from that. no one goes into schools and edit out the language that kids hear in schools. it doesn't happen. >> so to sanitize this film would ruin it? >> no one can say it better than katie who lives it, in the moment, in high school, who

experiences bullying. it's absolutely true. if you take out the language, you further minimize the experience that kids deal with when they're bullied. if we don't allow those scenes, if we don't allow the experience to be what it is, then we're cutting out that experience for the audience and also saying to the kids, one more time you have to have that experience silenced. you have to modify, edit, not be dealt with as if you've really gotten through something that's very traumatic. to me, it's egregious. >> this goes behind the curtain of what it's like in this iowa school. it's a great movie. you're giving voice to the voiceless for thousands of kids. you're probably never going to know their names or faces, but you're a big help to all of them. bully filmmaker, lee hirish. check out the bully project.com and facebook.com/bully movie. lee, thanks again. is a brokered convention the

only thing inevitable about mitt romney? ron reagan joins me to weigh in on that. a woman who says she represents thousands of girls around the globe. girls whose family tried to force them into marriages. you're going to meet this woman. author and woman warrior. she joins me live. so to save money, we actually just adopted a rescue panther. i think i'm goin-... shhh! we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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>> ron,let talk more about that. an op-ed in the washington post making an argument against a brokered convention saying the conservatives including santorum who insist on playing a destructive game that benefits only the president should engage in some introspecs and decide if they're in it for their own

cockeyed reasons or ambitions or the good of the conservative movement or the country. ron is that an accurate assessment or is a chaotic primary -- >> the chaotic primary is not a good thing for the republican party. these candidates, rick santorum and newt gingrich are in it for their own reasons. i'm not sure how to characterize it. they're in it for their own reasons. so is mitt romney. they don't show any signs of getting out. now, newt gingrich is going to come under tremendous pressure to leave the race pretty soon. his southern strategy doesn't seem to have panned out. he's already some of his advisers are a plarapparently floeting an idea of a santorum gingrich ticket. mitt romney's best friend is newt gingrich. if he stays in the race, he divides. he get out, santorum versus romney, and santorum could under those circumstances, could, maybe actually prevail. >> ron with the south the most

recent example. let's talk more about mitt romney in the exit polls. more than 50% of primary voters in each state said mitt romney just isn't conservative enough. why can't he still win over the party's base? is it -- when we're talking about the south, does it have to do with religious factors that the governor said himself that alabama might be a subtle issue for their voters? >> he doesn't do well with white evangelicals for the most part and they're overrepresented in republican primaries in the south. this is not his kind of country. he's never going to win over the conservative base. if he end up as the republican nominee, as he likely will, you might even see conservatives rallying around a third party candidate. somebody to owe o somebody else to get into the race, the general electric. >> the wild ride will continue. ron reagan, great to see you. >> it will. >> >> good to see you, thomas. we'll show you what's taking

place on capitol hill. actor george clooney is testifying before the senate foreign relations committee about the crisis in sudan. he gave riveting testimony about arriving in a rocket ravagedville anl during a recent trip there. >> three days ago, 15 bombs were dropped on a neighboring village. when we got there, we found children filled with shrapnel, including a nine-year-old boy who had both of his hands blown off. >> george clooney will be on hardball with chris matthews here on msnbc. tune in for that. on a different note, the united nations estimates that 5,000 women each year are the victims of honor kills, murdered by members of their own families for being disobedient. a remarkable woman was nearly among that number. i first heard her story at laos week's women in the world summit here in new york city. she was threatened with death by her own parents for seeking to escape an arranged marriage in

her native pakistan. an ordeal she documented she titled my fight for faith and freedom. it's nice to have you here. your story just grabbed my attention last week at this event. i thought we've got to have you on to share this with a larger audience. your trouble started with your parents at a young age, roughly 15 years old. your mother was abusive to you, beating you after finding out that you had kissed a boy in school. explain to all of us what happened with your family dynamic from that point forward. >> the problem was that my parents actually didn't want me to adjust to the culture where i was living because for them the culture was girls having sex before marriage that was something that only the infidels do. this is what my father taught me. i actually was promised to my cousin when i was a small baby. with 16, i should marry him and we went to holiday to pakistan

and there they forced me to marry the cousin. >> how did you escape and get away from the family that you loved but now have no contact with? >> that was actually after my conversion. the courage that i had was from the new faith that i had. i believe that you should decide on your own if you want -- who you want to marry. i had seen that in my classmates decided which partner they wanted to choose and i had seen this world and i was not so pakistani anymore. i decided, i just ran away from home and living in a police protection since 2006 in germany. >> how is this practice continued from generation to generation? is it from the father's side of the family or the female side of the family? >> in my family, it was more from the female side. the cousin i had to marry was the son of my auntie's. >> you started a foundation

right now where you are actively helping to save other girls. you call it an underground railroad. >> yes. >> >> how is it working? >> we help women to escape from their families, we find them shelters or beds or families to stay with. we help them to get a victim protection in germany. yeah. also we do psychological help. >> really it is fantastic work that you're doing for young ladies like yourself who feel trapped in situations beyond their control. but there are obviously options and help out there. saab tina james, thank you for coming in and sharing your story with all of us today. i appreciate it. here's a look at other stories. the so-called rutgers webcam suicide trial is now in the hapds of a jury. the five-man, seven-woman panel is deliberating against ravi. tyler clementi killed himself days later.

ravi faces 15 charges, including invasion of privacy and witness tampering. new evidence of an economic recove recovery. unemployment rates down in 45 states in january. the u.s. labor department says only new york reported higher joblessness. maine, new hampshire, new mexico, massachusetts stayed the same. other good news, the nasdaq closed above 3,000 on tuesday shall the best finish in 11 years. the dow closed at the highest in more than four years. the stocks falling a little flat right now. we'll keep our eye on the market for you. we've got a micked bag. but green arrows for the dow jones. residents of the northeast, northeast japan were shaken by two earthquake, one a 5.7, the other magnitude 6 earlier today. there was no major damage or injuries. in community marked the first anniversary of the deadly 2011 earthquake and tsunami just this past sunday. it's the end of an era. encyclopedia britannica is leaving print and going online

strictly. the classic encyclopedia was published in 1768 in scotland and was one of the world's most used until the internet. the publisher says about 4,000 sets are still for sale in print. coming up next, the president's roller coaster ride and the poll's approval ratings up, down, back up again. what's behind the major mood swings. i'm walt gale, i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs.

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the rick santorum surge reepd benefits in his home state. he's pulling away from the field up 13 points from mitt romney. he's making the case against president obama in a key swing state from afterthought in a head to head matchup to a dead heat in the keystone state. peter brown is the assistant director for the quinnipiac polling institute and joins me this morning. peter, i want everybody's eyes on this. it's another interesting find within your poll itself. mitt romney hasn't made up much ground on president obama in pennsylvania since the summer. but rick santorum is really

closing the gap there. does this bolster his argument that he is the best candidate to beat president obama, the conservative alternative? >> certainly mr. santorum's prominence compared to several months ago has fueled his ascension. he's in a statistical dead heat with president obama in the latest quinnipiac poll out this morning. romney is six points down to the president in the same poll. so obviously in pennsylvania, which is a state that mr. santorum represented in the senate for 12 years, mr. santorum's stronger. that shouldn't be terribly surprising. it's also worth noting that mr. obama carried pennsylvania by double digits in 2008. so that certainly mr. obama is in better shape against mr. romney than mr. santorum. but we have seven months to go. it's a long way. >> i'm getting tweets about the polls, especially concerning president obama and these wild mood swings, so to speak in

people's ratings of the president. a new reuters poll showing his approval at 50% but yesterday we're talking about the new york times, the washington post polls that showed his approval rating dropping. how do you ex plplain the mixed results? >> it's a matter that all polls are not created equal. some have different methodologist. you're correct. we've seen a number of polls we've shown varying regards, amounts of approval for the president. one of the reasons why the president might be down a bit is two thichblgts one, gas prices are not good for his political health and they've gone up. number two, what's going on in afghanistan is probably not good for his political health either. those are two reasons his numbers may be down a bit. >> according to my irish catholic grandmother, he said if you have the nerve to ask, they have the nerve to lie. she wasn't a great polling candidate. that may be where the numbers

are coming from. peter brown from the quinnipiac polling institute. we're keeping our eyes on president obama to hold a joint news conference with british prime minister david cameron shortly. the drawdown of troops in afghanistan, especially after the shooting this week. team coverage is coming your way next. ing for low prices. that burns a lot of gas. yep. want to see if this walmart low price guarantee can help you out with that? ok! every week they lower thousands of prices and check over 30,000 competitor prices. check out that low price. you want to grab one? grab two. what happens if she does find a lower advertised price somewhere else? i'll match it right here. so what did you learn today? every dollar counts and now i get to bring more home to my family. [ male announcer ] that's the walmart low price guarantee! see for yourself how much it can save you. than leading regular juice drinks. because less sugar is a better way to fly. ♪ just not literally. capri sun. respect what's in the pouch.

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>> back now everyone with developing news on afghanistan, right now, david cameron and president obama are meeting in the white house, the two leaders will join a joint press conference minutes from now. afghanistan will be central in their discussions. meantime, defense secretary leon panetta is in afghanistan meeting with afghan leaders. glenn, senior white house reporter is joining the conversation. gentlemen thank you so much. glenn, i want to start with you,

the prime minister and president will hold the joint press conference minutes from now. what should we expect to hear from the two leaders that we have not yet? >> what is interesting is that i guess, coming into this from last week, we expect this meeting and this press conference to be more or less exclusively about iran and how the united states and great britain would coordinator some sort of way of convincing israel to not move forward with an attack. but the incident with the soldier in afghanistan has put the pressure on both leaders to explain why we need to stay there all the way through 2014. >> mick, let's talk about leon panetta's visit there to the troops and with afghan leaders and the report that we received that soldiers were asked to disarm themselves before seeing him? what do we know about that? >> it's embarrassing for the u.s. marines today.

i've been dozens of these kind of town hall meetings with secretaries of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff their in the war zones in iraq and afghanistan, i've never seen combat troops in a war zone asked the put aside their weapons to go to a town hall meeting. according to the new command and i report he is new on the job down there in southern afghanistan at the marine camp corp's leather camp. he felt that the afghan officials were not armed and so the marines should not be armed. after all, this is one of the most important people in the world and it's no big deal. quite frankly lly the military officials say it's a big deal here in the pentagon that the marines are not trusted with the weapon p their weapons in the

presence of the secretary of defense. >> what are we learning about the alleged shooter. >> the 38-year-old staff sergeant as was reported yesterday, was seen through surveillance as he returned to the camp. he was lying on the ground at first either trying to hide or crawl toward the base, he eventually got up and surrendered. and when asked about the shootings in the village, we are told by sources that he told the soldiers i did it and then he asked for a lawyer and clammed up since then and has not said anything. the investigators are putting together charges which could include capital murder charges according to officials here in the pentagon, and we are told that for transparency and trust reasons that the military may very well court-martial this soldier right there in afghanistan and one other

reason, most of the witnesses who would have been in the village at the time are there in afghanistan, and logistics would be a nightmare. never the less, this apparently, this soldier in a clean record in terms of behavior. he had a tbi injury, in iraq in 2010. but no residual effects apparently and suddenly he snapped. there are reports that he was having marriage problems he had three tours already in iraq and afghanistan and this may have built up to this act, but so far nobody knows what led to the shooting. >> i want to show you the new reuteres poll, 61% of the people want the troops brought homemadely. how might the feelings of the

nation effect the withdrawal of troops? >> the leadership is saying it won't. how can it fail to influence this? i mean, this is not on a scale of the massacre in vietnam, but its that same psychology impact which has people in the white house and pentagon questioning what are we subjecting these soldiers to? and i think the support for this war on the hill is thin and getting thinner. >> right. politico's glenn thrush, gentlemen, thank you. >> thank you. >> that will wrap it up for me. i appreciate your time, i'll see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 eastern. you can follow me on twitter. "now" comes up next. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller.

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frenemys. david cameron is in town, and rick santorum may have an unchosen running mate called newt gingrich. joining me today, columnist for the hill, container finney, and mark mckinney is a former adviser to george w. bush and mr. sunday morning himself, new york times magazine editor, hugo lindgren we will carry the president's talks, they come after a -- first we will go to the 2012 republican race. mitt romney had a chance to sew up the nomination with wins in alabama and mississippi, this is romney yesterday. >> senator